Calorie chart for Indian Dishes and Tracking

I have written earlier about tracking your running activity using "Caledos Runner". I suggested an app which allows you to track the time, speed, distance as well as relative calories burnt during your walk or run. It is pretty helpful to keep a track and there by improvise your performance.

In addition to such an app, many a times we are looking for an aid that helps you keep track of what you eat. How much calories of food you intake everyday. If you are eating say 3000 calories every day and in return you are burning just 300 calories by running, then there is pretty much significant advantage of exercise.

There is a calculation which suggests that your calorie intake should not be more than

(Your weight in kgs) * 24 calories

i.e. if you are 80 kg, then maximum allowed calories for you are 80 * 24 i.e. 1920 calories.

This will maintain your weight at 80 kgs.

If you want to reduce your weight, then definitely your intake should  be less than this figure.

But this figure can not be reduced by more than 500 calories.

Means there is a lower limit to your reduced calorie intake. In this case, you should not reduce your intake to less than 1420 calories.

And in any case it should be reduced below 1000 calories per day.

 Now, main question that arises, is how do you measure this calorie intake.

For that again there is an app available. Easiest available one is "Bing Health and fitness".

There is a facility of Diet Tracking  with in this app. It has a list of dishes with corresponding  calorie value, and it allows you to keep a track of your calorie per day and makes a record of it for you to follow your regular diet needs.

There is one small problem with this app though. The list mostly is designed according to the food habits of western society. For example, I tried to search for "Besan Laddoo" (Thanks to heavy eating during Diwali). But the list does not contain such an item. Although there is a scope to customize the list. So, if you want to modify the list according to your food habits, there is a scope.

Now the next question, where will you find the list of food items of Indian origin and their corresponding energy content value.Most of the webpages, I came across, provide details of food out of western food habits. So, searching for Indian food with calorie chart needed little digging. I did little search and am providing here with two links which provide most of the food cuisines of Indian origin.

http://www.fitjog.com/nutrition-charts/how-many-calories-in-indian-food.php

http://www.apollolife.com/tools/caloriesheetofcommonfooditems.aspx

Kindly take advantage of these links, update you "Bing Health and Fitness" list and try to keep a track of your per day calorie intake.  This of course is relevant to those who are continuous about their health. For others, just enjoy the food 

Movies - disappointing day by day

There was a time when a bunch of people preferentially chose to watch Hollywood movies over Bollywood movies. I belong to that bunch. The main reasons for such a preference included good story, better presentation, no songs! and short time (almost half of any Bollywood movie). Most of the Hollywood movies I watched back then used to grip me to the seat right from the beginning till the end. I came across first part of Lord of the Rings and it made me voraciously read that huge book of almost 1200 pages with font 8, just because I could not wait long for the second part of the movie to know the story. Movies like Gladiator, Brave Heart, still have a great impression on my mind. Jurassic Park really opened a new chapter of imagination for us. Movies like Day after Tomorrow introduced to the concept of probable extinction of human race. And who can forget the series of Harry Potter movies who took every body right from a small kid to a Grand father for a joy ride.

When I used to once in a while watch a Bollywood movie, my time was spent looking at the watch. Except for a few movies like Tare Zameen Par or 3 idiots, watching a hindi movie is most of the time a torture. I enjoyed watching Chak De movie though. It was so good to watch a sports based movie in Hindi which was a rare case till then. Fortunately there weren't too many songs (specifically some romantic song) to unnecessarily stretch the movie. But then " Bhag Milkha Bhag" was little disappointing, though, Farhan Akhtar has taken some real efforts to get in the character. At the same time, I wonder how few movies cross 100 crore mark so easily when it is not even worthy of even 1 crore. Recently released movie "Happy New Year" has crossed  100 crore mark in just 3 days. I wonder if that movie is so good. All such movies ride on publicity stunts.

In between, few Marathi movies also started making a mark. People started talking about these marathi movies. So, I also took a dip in this ocean. But, I am mostly disappointed. Recently, a movie named "Duniya dari" became a big hit among Marathi movie fans. Even financially, it was very successful. It crossed  28 crores scale as I had heard reports. So, when it was released on TV, I decided to watch this movie. I am yet to understand what clicked in this movie. I found it really difficult to continue watching it after 45 minutes ( with first 45 minutes spent in some hope of good story further).

So, with such reasons, I was reduced to watch only Hollywood movies for my entertainment. I was fascinated by Iron man series. First part was just awesome. The way it built up was fantastic. Its second part was also interesting, but by the time third part arrived, the series lost the touch. Same thing happened with Trasnformer series. First and second part were mind blowing but then it kind of lost the plot. By the time fourth part arrived, I guess the main character changed and it suddenly become alien. Same way, I was disappointed with the Bourne Series. I thing first three parts of the movie are the most fast pace movies I have ever seen. But, the fourth part took another turn, changing story a bit, the main character and it lost its touch. 

I was so looking forward to the new Godzilla version. For some reasons, I could not watch that movie when released. yesterday, I happened to watch it and felt good, not spending money on it. Are you kidding? 2 mutant creatures trying to reproduce and Godzilla comes to save us by killing them in a fierce fight! What kind of story is this.

I liked Thor, to some extent. And hoping that second part won't be a disappointment. I have the movie with me, but, wondering, should I spend my time watching it!

Avengers was a series which did not attract my attention at all. I think, the movie arrived when we were too much saturated with the super heroes and so, it could not make an impact, though, it is one of the most watched movies.

I liked Avatar and I heard they are bringing the next part. I hope it is not true.

I liked Spiderman with Toby Mcguire. Believe all the movies in the series. But then, they converted it into Amazing Spiderman with new hero and it lost all.

One movie that amazed me was "Planet of the apes". Its second part is released. I haven't watched it, but I am looking forward to get a copy of it and watch how the movie progressed.

Overall, I have realized that over the time, even the Hollywood movies have become predictable. Either, the movies do not have very high standards, or we have matured enough to not just get impressed by any thing that comes in front of us. We have started finding mistakes in those movies. We have started pointing out " How can they miss this? ". We have started wondering " Isn't it that obvious!". If this is a case with Hollywood movies which surely keep much high standards compared to our Hindi or Marathi movies, there is not surprise when we find it difficult to get through a Hindi or Marathi.

I just hope, we don't see a day when movies become totally insignificant

Buddies

Maharashtra elections

A week more and Maharashtra goes into election. Lots of new developments took place in last couple of days. All should be called significant. On one side, BJP-SHIVSENA coalition (25 years old) broke, and on the other side (CONGRESS-NCP) coalition also broke.

This has made elections very intresting. It is a 5 cornered fight now. And I believe, this will really bring the real image of all the parties in front of the voters.

On one side, Shivsena is still sulking on the breaking of the partnership. They are trying to create a picture that it is all BJP's fault. It probably worked for initial 2-3 days of campaigning, but now, it has started appearing that Shivsena has no other agenda to present. Seems like Shivsena is doomed.

BJP seems to have chosen the high road. They are as far as possible neglecting what shivsena or other parties are saying regarding the breaking of coalition. They have brought their star campaigner, Modi, who is pitching once again for Development.

Seems like Modi wave is yet to be over and may help BJP.

Congress and NCP seem to have no agenda.

While Congress is trying to encash some developments like monorail, metro and worli -bandra sealink, they have no other thing to show. All these developments are part of Mumbai. What about rest of Maharashtra. No advertisement on that front.

NCP is also trying to make some profit out of the development in last 10 years. But some how they are not able to encash it. Their main power resides on the local popularity of their candidate. Some regions of Maharashtra are their forts, untouchable. At rest of the places, hardly a possibility.

The fifth corner is MNS. Raj Thackrey is another one than BJP who is pushing on development card. He has released the blue print for Maharashtra's development(available at http://mnsblueprint.org/)

A quick look shows that he has done his homework. As always, he impresses with his oratory. But on the backdrop of his Loksabha results, its difficult to say, how good he is at the moment. But, my guess is, he could be underdog.

Overall, its going to be a tough contest. Most probably, it will be a hung parliament.

I feel BJP will make the most of it, followed by NCP and Shivsena, then Congress and MNS.But its difficult to pinpoint the number of  seats each party will win. That requires a little more detailed study. 

But one thing is sure, all the leaders shouting at each other at the moment, will soon become friends once their need for each others help to form a government  becomes the major intention.

Every body in Maharashtra will be eagerly waiting for October 19. The big day